Coming to a Close

Well, for me anyway, summer's almost over: I start classes in one day short of a month (I move back to campus in three weeks), and I move to Kentucky in less than a week (yikes!). My last summer in Boulder has just flown by all too quickly.

As for all those goals, I really haven't accomplished very many of them.

FIND A JOB: Well, unless you consider gardening for my Dad off and on a job, then I didn't accomplish this one (sadly). To me, odd jobs don't exactly make enough to count as actual jobs.

LEARN TO DRIVE: Nope, not even the slightest dent in getting this one done.

START RE-DOING MY SOC BOOK: Well, I did start, but I only got about two pages done.

BEGIN A SCRAPBOOK FOR MY JEP EXPERIENCES: Another nope.

LEARN TO SEW: Nada. (Thanks for the link, Leena. Jenn, you'd like the site, too)

So I guess my summer was pretty lazy. But I have gotten to see quite a few of my friends before I'm off for KY and a new school year (which I'm totally psyched for, buy the way).

By the way, thanks to Josh and Judy for the comments on my last post. It helped me a lot (as did Mass yesterday). I'm not back to my usual confidence, but I'll get there!

Religious Struggles

So lately I have been struggling with my religious path (liberal Catholicism). I guess you could say that I havent felt the same religious "high" that I had while at UE. Maybe it's the fact that the church I used to go to has undergone many changes since the Paulist Fathers left, or mybe it's because I didn't have a regular group to attend any more, or maybe I just no longer fit in as well, the same way I don't quite fit in to Boulder any longer. Who really knows? No matter the reasons why, I'm struggling a bit with my faith.

I guess one analogy that could work to describe my situation in a completely unsatisfactory manner, is riding a bike up a rather rocky hill. Only it's a hill that you can't see the top of and therefore you feel as though you're getting nowhere.

This very bad analogy came to me while I was walking the half-hour hill from my dog-sitting job back home this morning. Along this uphill walk of mine, I pass by a Methodist church along Gillaspe. Along with various signs advertising a Korean service (in Korean, of course), was the English sign with a little saying on it:

Confide in me

I have all under control

-Jesus

I almost cried! Of course, it didn't exactly help my mind from trying to battle out the struggle, but it did help me to take a step back and stop worrying about it so much. It also made me think of a tandem bicycle, which I have to give msot of the credit to Father Kevin for that one!

So I guess I'm going to try and let loose a little more and trust that I'll end up where I'm supposed to be. (And boy do I sound like a Boulderite).

お数珠 (ojuzu)

So when I went to Japan about a year ago, I picked up some juzu beads at one of the temples I visited. I've worn them ever since, and now that the elastic is kind of going, I thought I would look up more specifics for possibly making a set of my own. So, I did a little bit of research.

The first thing I found out is that the version I have is actually fairly small. A basic strand has 108 beads, while mine has 31 (27 small beads in a light green color, 2 small clear beads, 1 large bead with a buddha image inside, and 1 bead on top). The beads are supposed to represent the number of worldly desires that must be subdued, and usually they're used to count prayers.

Most of the other facts I found out are a little hard for me to explain, but a Google search should be sufficient. (Wiki doesn't comeup with anything of any use).